Best way to offset unexpected large W-2 Income?

[Ernest Fox]

This year, the company I was working for was acquired. As a part of the acquisition, all my stock options were accelerated and paid out as cash through payroll. This payment will leave me with about $600,000 in W-2 income for 2024. While researching my options to reduce my 2024 tax burden (already maxed the 401k and HSA), I see that it is possible to buy an investment property, use it for Short Term Rentals and as long as certain conditions are met, I can accelerate the depreciation which can be used as an offset to W-2 income. This seems like an ideal situation, as I was already considering the idea of a vacation rental property. This is all new to me, so I have a few questions:

• -I see that the depreciation expense will depend on the completion of a cost segregation study. Are there certain types of properties that I should target and/or avoid for a better outcome when it comes to the cost segregation study….Large Condo Assoc/Small Condo Assoc/townhouse/SFH?
• -Should I put the property under an LLC (pay higher mortgage rate, but better protection against lawsuits) or keep under my name?
• -I believe that I will need to self-manage the property through something like Airbnb/vacasa/vrbo in order to meet the “Material Participation” threshold? Any suggestions on what platform might be best?
• - I live in Maryland, any suggestions on what markets might be best for STR and about 150k to invest?
• - I realize that this maneuver will likely increase the risk of audit....curious to get a sense of how much more risk of audit I will face and does the IRS typically just audit the one year or would they dig into previous years as well?
• Any other legal options to help offset my W-2 income other than a STR?

Thanks in advance.